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Sunday, 14 December 2008

Event: Celtic whiskey tasting in Kilkenny

The Wine Centre in Kilkenny will pit the Celtic nations against one another on Saturday, Dec 20th. Three single malts will be sampled: Bushmills 10yo representing Ireland, Bruichladdich 12yo for Scotland, and Penderyn Single Malt from Wales.

Penderyn is the only distillery in Wales and first fired up its still in 2000, so the whiskey is still a little young. Nevertheless it has been getting good reviews and, after reading their website and the description of their unusual distillation technique, I'm very keen to try it myself.

Anyway, pop along to The Wine Shop between 12 noon and 6pm on Saturday for a chance to taste these whiskeys.

I don't have much firsthand knowledge of whiskey retailers outside Dublin so I took the opportunity to ask the shop's manager, Jim McKnight, about their whiskey stock. While The Wine Shop's focus is unsurprisingly on wine, Jim tells me that they have the largest selection of whiskeys in the south-east, and it's getting bigger by the week.

Naturally they have all the old favourites but it sounds like it's a good place to chance on some more unusual bottlings too. Three bottles of Jameson 15yo (a very rare, pure pot still version of Jameson) arrived in the shop last week, for example.

The Wine Shop is also offering 20% off limited edition Lockes and Tyrconnell in wooden presentation boxes.